Using Gmail to…

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This article is an excerpt from the upcoming ExtremeTech book Hacking Gmail. This feature takes gmail beyond ordinary email and fashions it to perform several tasks. Also, check out our previous Hacking Gmail feature: “Gmail Power Tips.”

Using Gmail as To-Do ListAround the same time as Gmail was launched, the tech world spawned a fashion for being really, really, organized. To-do lists are stylish accessory for any self-respecting geek, and, of course, Gmail can be fashioned into a fine tool for such things.

Using FiltersThe first way of making to-do lists is to use plus addresses and filters. The plus address feature, as you’ll remember from our previous Gmail feature, is the one where you can add a plus sign (+) and then any string to your gmail address without it making any difference. For example: Ben.Hammersley+fanmail@gmail.com is exactly the same as Ben.Hammersley@gmail.com, or Ben.Hammersley+hatemail@gmail.com, or Ben.Hammersley+dinner_invitations@gmail.com, or whatever. They’ll all be delivered to my address, no matter what you put after the plus sign.

However, you can set filters on the address, and push specific ones into specific labels. Figure 14-1 shows a filter set up to do just that, sending ben.hammersley+todo@gmail.com to the label “Todo”.

Figure 14-1

What’s the point of that? Well, it’s easy to send email, whether you’re sat at your main machine, or using a mobile device—and so you can send new to-do list items to your Gmail account with a simple few keystrokes. Place the to-do item itself in the subject line, and you can have a screen very much like Figure 14-2—showing the “Todo” label index, now passing muster as a very useful to-do list in itself. Continued…